Land-based business boosts AKVA
Salmon industry supplier AKVA Group’s Land Based segment was the most encouraging performer for the Norwegian company in the first quarter of the year, although its Caged Based segment remains its primary revenue generator.
Overall revenue in Q1 2021 was NOK 719 million (£62.3m) compared to NOK 752m at the end of Q1 2020. EBITDA, a measure of operating profit, fell slightly from NOK 86m in Q1 2020 to NOK 83m.
Revenue in the Land Based segment increased by 46% to NOK 115 million (£10m) compared to Q1 2020, and EBITDA rose to NOK 9.4m compared to NOK 2.9m in Q1 last year and NOK 7.9m in Q4 2020.
Nearly all revenue (NOK 113m) in the Land Based segment came from the Nordic region.
Order intake increased to NOK 69 million (£6m) in the quarter compared to NOK 10m in Q1 2020.
Cage Based segment
In AKVA’s Cage Based segment, order intake fell by 17% to NOK 569m compared to Q1 2020 and revenue was down 10% to NOK 590m. Revenue rose by 2% in the Nordic region to NOK 412m, but the total order intake of NOK 358m was 31% lower than in the same period last year.
In the Americas, AKVA reported a 31% reduction in revenue to NOK 84m in the Cage Based segment compared to Q1 2020 and a decrease in order intake of 32%.
In the Europe and Middle East reduction, AKVA reported a 28% reduction in revenue to NOK 94m in the Cage Based segment but a significant increase in order intake of 57% compared to Q1 2020.
Digital Solutions
In AKVA’s Digital Solutions segment, the company recorded a higher EBITDA margin of 34% compared to 13.1% in Q1 2020, although revenue of NOK 14m was NOK 3m less than in Q1 2020.
AKVA, which completed a strategically important acquisition of a 34% equity stake in UK-based Observe Technologies in February, has a high focus on further development of its digital capabilities and on increasing its activity level in that area.
Cyber attack
The figures all exclude the NOK 49.7m costs of a cyber attack on the company, which are recognised separately in the Q1 figures.
Direct costs, all related to third-party costs, amounted to NOK 40.7m. Other operational costs of the attack were calculated as NOK 2.2m in the Caged Based segment for unproductive time Chile and Norway, NOK 3.7m in the Land Based segment for unproductive time Chile and Denmark, and NOK 3.1m in the Digital Solutions segment for reduced revenue due to downtime on IT systems.
AKVA’s order backlog at the end of Q1 was NOK 1.813 billion (Q1 2020: NOK 1.650bn), of which NOK 929m or 51% relates to land based technology.
